When The Sunlight Dies - Human Wreckage Sequel -

Chapter Eight

Bellamy’s P.O.V

Ever since we had taken off, the ride had been quiet. My leg jumped up and down, the silence killing me from the inside out. I needed some excitement, something to take my mind off of the headache forming behind my skull. The quiet was only making it worse.

“So…” I decided, “How are we going to get to Gerard?”

“We follow this road until it splits into four paths, we take the very right turn and onto what’s called the getaway mile. Then, we keep following that until the gas station. When we hit that, we’ll refuel. There are some mountains behind the gas station, the diner is a bit behind one and in between… that’s their hideout,” Electric explained, I nodded at this new information.

Static shot out from the radio in the car and the same familiar voice sounded through the speakers when I first saw Cornelius, “This is Dr. Death Defying reporting ten dracs on motorcycles. The helicopter report says they were last seen somewhere around Zone Two.”

My eyes widened as I passed a look between Electric and Adele, “What zone are we in?”

“Zone Three…” Electric answered.

“They’re looking for you,” Adele added.

Electric stepped harder on the gas, pushing it as far as it would go. Adele crawled halfway out of the window and held onto the bar on top. I hesitated before doing the same on my side, copying her stance.

“They will be approaching soon. Wait for a clear shot. Don’t be afraid to shoot them because trust me, they won’t think twice about shooting you,” Adele instructed.

I laughed, “So I’ve been told,” I glanced at her to find a smug smile lighting her face.

There we stood, guns poised and hair stinging our faces as the wind moved it around. We both stood like that for several minutes, my arms growing tired when Electric looked through the review mirror once again. He shouted at us over the wind from the driver’s seat, “They’re coming!”

I squinted my eyes, recognizing the white motorcycles with the BL/ind sticker slapped on the right side of every vehicle. Their motorcycles gained on us quickly, “Shit,” Adele muttered, taking the safety off of her gun. I drew my eyebrows together, following her movements.

I aimed the gun towards one of the dracs just as she had. They drove in a cluster, the dracs in the front pointing their guns towards us, “You shoot the ones on your side and I’ll deal with my side,” she shouted.

I nodded although I doubted that she could see it. Once they were close enough, I took the lead by shooting the first shot. After that, the battle immediately started. One by one, the dracs went down, skidding off of their motorcycles and into the sand.

There was a scream to my left; I shot a look towards Adele who had been skimmed in the shoulder by a beam.

Anger coursed through my veins as my head snapped towards the drac that had fired the shot, still standing. The familiar pew sound came from my gun as it sailed towards the drac, hitting him in the chest. The motorcycle skidded and veered off the road, crashing. I laughed and kept shooting at the remaining dracs, feeling more alive than ever.

…

It was now dark outside as we pulled up to the gas station. Adele and I climbed out from the windows, stepping into the freezing cold. I shivered, glad that I had a jacket on.

“We need to get some rest. We can leave the Trans Am where it is and hike down towards those rocks and sleep for the night,” Electric suggested, everyone else nodding in agreement. I didn’t want to stop for the night. I wanted and needed to get to Gerard as soon as possible but sleep seemed too overcome my wants.

We started a fire and bandaged up Adele’s bleeding shoulder. It wasn’t anything serious, fortunately. It just skimmed the top of her shoulder. Adele took the first watch, sitting atop one of the boulders to get a good view of the desert, watching for any dracs that might decide to sneak up on us while we sleep.

It took awhile for sleep to come, but eventually all rational thoughts disappeared as I fell into the dreaming realm with Cornelius at my side.

…

“Bella…” A gentle voice sounded, my body rocking back and forth, “Bella, it’s your turn.”

I groaned, forcing myself to sit up. Adele flashed me an apologetic smile. I felt myself starting to drift off to sleep again but I protested as I shot up from my spot on the ground. Adele steadied me as I nearly fell over. I climbed atop the rocks and sat down, preparing myself to stay awake until it was Electric’s turn. I leaned against a dip in the boulder, sighing.

I knew that there were dracs still out there looking for us… for me. I should have known that the Director would’ve sent them. I mean, of course the Director cared so much… I was her most valuable possession. Except I’m not, I’m a person.

The woman who played as my mum would’ve contacted the Director as soon as she got home and discovered that I wasn’t there.

They would have found my room a mess and realized I was gone. Now they were coming to haul me back to that retched place. They would probably brainwash me again and put me back on those pills. They would kill Electric and Adele once they found me. I couldn’t let that happen…

“What’cha thinkin’ about?” Cornelius asked, sitting down on the rock next to me.

“Adele… she got hurt because of me. It’s all my fault,” I said quietly so that I didn’t wake either of them up.

“What? It’s not your fault, Bella. You didn’t shoot her,” he protested.

“I might as well have. I should go…” he was about to start protesting again but I cut him off, “They told me where Gerard is. Over there in between those mountains,” I pointed, “I need to go before someone else gets hurt. Or worse… It’s not them that the Director wants. It’s me… it’s all me. She built this little world around me. For what?” I shook my head, “They’ll burn down the whole city… again… just to get me back.”

“Well we can’t just leave them right now while they are asleep. What if some dracs show up?”

This time I fell silent… I hadn’t thought of that.

“You stay here then,” I whispered. It was the only thing that I could think of.

“What? No!” He jumped to his feet, “I am not letting you leave. I am not letting you go out there on your own! How could you even suggest something like that? Are you crazy?”

I smiled at that, knowing that I completely was, “You know that I, in fact, am crazy. Alright… how about this then: We sneak over to the Trans Am and turn the radio up to full blast. It will wake them up. Then, we run. By the time they get over to the Trans Am, we’ll be a good distance away from them. They’ll be out of danger.”

“Are you sure that you really want to go through with this? It’s kind of stupid. You’re like family to Adele. She’d do anything to protect you, for Gerard, y’know?”

I huffed, “No one ever said that I was smart. And, I don’t know my relationship with her. Besides, I won’t let them die for me. I’m nothing special.”

“You’re special to me,” his words hit me hard. My eyes flashed gold, I could tell by the look on his face. I squeezed them shut, trying so hard not to go through another one of those awful dream spasms. It was nice to remember who I was but the pain was just too much to bear. I had no time for one of those now. Instead, like when I was running from the dracs, flashes and strings of words came to mind.

It was that same memory that I had a few days ago with Gerard and the kiss. How his soft fingers brushed under my chin and the tingling sensation that he left behind and- Focus Bella!

I swallowed the lump in my throat, squeezing my eyes. I opened them and nodded my head, “Let’s go.”